The conservative taxi-hailing app Flywheel isn’t trying not to break the law

Skift Take

The more old school service that involves actually picking up the phone might appeal to less techy drivers and legislators, but its name could easily be forgotten without a cloud of controversy following its growth.

Flywheel, formerly known as Cabulous, helps users hail and pay for rides. It partners with taxi fleets to use their existing systems, as well as individual drivers. It currently works with 5,000 drivers in 2,000 cabs across the U.S.

Today the company is changing its name…and relaunching its iPhone and Android apps to include “intelligent adaptation to driver and consumer behavior,” as CEO Steve Humphreys described it.

The new apps include features that allow riders and drivers to call each other while shielding their phone numbers from each other, charging automated cancellation fees based on how far a cab has already travelled to pick up a passenger, and dropping unreliable drivers from being displayed.